Todd Babiak is the co-founder of Story Engine, a consultancy based in Vancouver that uses narrative to solve business problems and build brands. In 2011, one of his clients, the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, changed his life because he fell in love with place-branding. Many clients later, his strategy work for Tasmania turned into a job, which led to another job, possibly the best job in the world: CEO of Brand Gold Coast.

Fabienne Bernet is a B2B marketer with 15 years of experience, including 9 years in foreign direct investment (FDI). Currently, she heads digital marketing initiatives at Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), the official Swiss organization for export and investment promotion. She develops paid media concepts and helps advance digital approaches for investment promotion, including emerging tactics like GEO and AI discoverability, with a clear focus on making impact more measurable and visible. Guided by the Swiss values of quality and innovation, Fabienne is passionate about strengthening Switzerland’s reputation beyond chocolate and mountains, positioning it as a stable, highly innovative, and easy-to-do-business location where companies can grow for the long term. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management.

Ieva Davydenko is Head of City Events at Go Vilnius, the city’s official tourism and business development agency. She leads the development of major city events and festivals that strengthen Vilnius’ identity and attract international attention. Her work brings together event creation, city marketing and partnerships.

At City Nation Place Global, Ieva will present Vilnius Pink Soup Fest – the flagship event she leads. Built around Lithuania’s iconic cold pink soup, the festival grew from 15,000 attendees to more than 176,000 visits in just four years, engaged over 330 city partners and generated an estimated €10 million in economic value. Her case study will show how an authentic local tradition became an internationally recognised festival and an effective place-branding tool.

Dr. Keith Dinnie is a renowned authority in the field of Place Branding, with an extensive track record of academic and practical experience. He is the author of “Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practice,” the first textbook on Nation Branding and a seminal work in the sector, now in its third edition (Routledge, 2022), and editor of “City Branding: Theory and Cases” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

As a global speaker, Keith has presented his work on City, Region, and Nation Branding in numerous countries across Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. His research focuses on applying strategic brand management to drive tourism, attract investment, promote exports, and strengthen public diplomacy.

Since 2018, Keith serves as a Reader in Marketing at University of Dundee School of Business.

Steve Duncan is Managing Director of C Studios (www.c-studios.com), the marketing communications agency for places. With over two decades of expertise in place marketing, Steve has collaborated with cities, regions, countries, research parks, and real estate developments across virtually every major world region to reach executives and skilled talents.

A vocal advocate for digital place promotion, Steve has authored multiple studies on investment promotion, talent attraction and digital marketing. Those include "What Talent Wants: Capturing What Europe's Workforce Seeks in Jobs & Locations," “Winning Strategies in Investment Promotion Marketing,” and "The State of Digital Advertising in Economic Development." His speaking roles on these core topics have featured at City Nation Place Global, FDI Leaders Network, IEDC Annual & Leadership Conferences, MIPIM and various client stakeholder events.

At C Studios, Steve leads a team specializing in elevating place brands globally, focusing on strategy and implementation for international talent attraction, investment promotion, and trade promotion initiatives. Previously, he spent 19 years with Development Counsellors International (DCI), the New York-based leader in marketing places. His strategic approach and innovative thinking have made him a trusted advisor to organizations like Costa Rica's CINDE, Austrian Business Agency, Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, Luxembourg Let's Make It Happen, EDB Singapore, Invest Alberta, and Invest Puerto Rico.

A journalism graduate from Pennsylvania State University, Steve has dedicated his entire career to place marketing, continuously adapting strategies to meet the evolving digital landscape. His experience spans lead generation, public relations and advertising, all aimed at enhancing a destination's findability, credibility and lovability among decision-makers in an increasingly online world.

When not working to put places on the map, Steve is usually trying to put himself somewhere on it. He has cycled some of the world's most famous passes and mountain roads, is a wine enthusiast that has tasted grapes on four continents, and is known to get up before dawn to capture the perfect sunrise photo.

Marco Esser (1971) is director of The Hague & Partners. He was responsible for the merger of The Hague Marketing Bureau, The Hague Convention Bureau, and The Hague Business Agency into one foundation. The aim of The Hague & Partners is to increase welfare and the wellbeing of the citizens. They do this via marketing & acquisition, aimed at inhabitants, visitors, congress organizers, and foreign businesses and organizations. Marco Esser was (and is) member of Supervisory Boards in tourism, sports, culture, and welfare. Before he became the director of The Hague & Partners, Marco was political advisor, spokesperson and campaign manager of the Dutch Labor Party. Marco lives in the city center of The Hague with his wife and two kids.

Since 2003 Mr. Torres has been advising Countries in the field of Nation Branding and City Branding, working directly with heads of state, directors of National Tourism Organizations and Investment Promotion Agencies.

His clients include Countries, Regions and Cities such as Australia, Brazil, Cleveland, Costa Rica, Finland, Jamaica, Oman, Poland, Riyadh, South Africa, Stockholm and many others spread across all five continents.

Mr. Torres collaborates directly with the World Economic Forum in the matters of Nation Branding and is a guest speaker in some of the most prestigious universities in USA and Europe, such as NYU, HARVARD, the London School of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics and many others, being interviewed by The Economist, BBC, Guardian and CNN.

He is the co-author of the recently published textbook Nation and Place Branding: An Applied Approach to Building the Image of Countries, Regions, and Cities, author of the Nation Brand Builders and co-author of several academic papers covering Nation and City Branding.

Bloom Consulting lead manager on the first-ever study on the impact of Nation Brands and City Brands on local and global economies.

Find out more on Bloom Consulting website: www.bloom-consulting.com

David Gilbert serves as President and CEO of Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, an organization dedicated to making Greater Cleveland the nation’s foremost destination for amateur sporting events and activities, and Destination Cleveland, the region’s destination marketing and management organization. He re-established the Sports Commission in 2000 and assumed his role with Destination Cleveland in 2011. From April 2015 through December 2017, David also served as the president and CEO of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee for the Republican National Convention.

Greater Cleveland Sports Commission is responsible for attracting, creating, managing, and enhancing significant sporting and competitive events. Since 2000, the organization has attracted over 200 events including the NFL Draft, MLB All-Star Game, NBA All-Star Weekend and NCAA Women’s Final Four in addition to the upcoming 2024 Pan-American Maters Games. These events have contributed more than $820 million in local economic impact.

At Destination Cleveland, Gilbert is responsible for carrying out the organization’s mission to drive economic impact and stimulate community vitality by positioning and promoting Cleveland as an exciting, vibrant destination. Under his leadership, visitation and economic impact increased dramatically for nine consecutive years (2011-2019) before the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. During that time, annual visitation grew at a pace greater than the U.S. visitation growth rate.

Gilbert serves as vice president on the board of the International Children’s Games, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and sits of the boards of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland and the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board of the Department of Commerce. He was named by Crain’s Cleveland Business as one of Cleveland’s “30 influencers of the past 30 years,” Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and in 2016, he received the SME Cleveland Business Executive of the Year Award.

Gilbert has a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing from The Ohio State University and an MBA from Cleveland State University.

My background is in political science and integrated communication.

I have more than 15 years experience in communication working within different areas - public and digital diplomacy, stratcom, government affairs, media relations, PR, country branding.

Together with my team in 2019 we have launched a new brand strategy and platform - Lithuania Co-Create. 

Alex Harvie is Head of City Marketing in Glasgow’s new Destination Management Organisation (DMO) called Destination Glasgow.

This brings together Destination Marketing, Glasgow Conventions Bureau and Invest Glasgow into one organisation, based in Glasgow City Council.

Alex was previously Head of Marketing and Communications at Glasgow Life, one of Scotland’s largest charities, dedicated to improving people’s lives through culture and sport. Glasgow Life operates the city’s museums (including the award-winning Burrell Collection, Kelvingrove Art Gallery, and Riverside Museum), as well as libraries, arts and cultural venues, sports centres, and city-wide events.

Alex has thirty years’ experience in delivering complex, integrated communications projects, from being Head of Communications at Wembley, to creating the first definitive cultural study on Iran in 70 years, to setting the UK Government’s language of mourning after 9/11.

Stefan Hawes is Resonance's Chief AI Officer. He works with destinations, cities and developers on how they show up when AI platforms recommend places, how to bring AI into the way their organizations work, and what AI will mean for their business as it changes how people choose where to travel, invest and live.

He arrived here through 30 years of brand building. He ran creative and digital agencies in Vancouver, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Shanghai for brands from Nike to Michelin, then crossed into destination marketing as Vice President, Global Marketing at Destination Vancouver. There he led a full brand transformation and the organization's move into AI, from AI-powered visitor servicing to AI visibility to adoption across the whole organization.

He writes and speaks internationally on AI and the future of place marketing.

Stefan lives in Berlin.

Kim Heinen works as Manager Media Relations & Public Affairs at Rotterdam Partners. She has played a key role in international city marketing and putting the city of Rotterdam on the map in a positive way for more than 15 years.

Her approach is characterized by authenticity. She strongly believes that a city does not have to please everyone. It is precisely by embracing the raw, unique, and sometimes idiosyncratic sides of Rotterdam that she creates a credible and compelling city narrative.

Konrad leads Brand Finance’s place branding and soft power practice. He liaises with clients, directs consulting projects, and is responsible for the creation and promotion of the annual Global Soft Power Index, Nation Brands, and City Index studies.

Konrad has extensive experience in advising clients in the fields of place branding and public diplomacy. Before joining Brand Finance, he worked at the Polish Embassy in London where he developed and delivered successful marketing communications campaigns as well as media relations programmes of official engagements by the president, prime minister, government ministers, and the ambassador.

In his role at Brand Finance, Konrad has advised a variety of place branding organisations, including the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Campaign, Austrade, and Cape Town Tourism.

Before moving on to grow the place branding practice, Konrad was the Communications Director of Brand Finance and Managing Director of Brand Finance’s PR agency – Brand Dialogue for 5 years. He has a proven track record in executing integrated communications strategies, having been responsible for publishing nearly 100 industry and country reports on the world’s most valuable brands on an annual basis.

Konrad has qualified with the Professional PR Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). He studied European Studies MA at King’s College London and the Humboldt University in Berlin, and International Relations with Political Science BA at the University of Birmingham.

University of Southern Maine; 30 years of experience
Matthew Kruchko is the Head of Global Operations for Gravity Global. Over a 30-year career, Matthew has progressed from owning and leading brand marketing agencies for 20 years to serving as a CEO and EVP of Global Strategy and Marketing for a publicly traded company. His expertise, honed in Silicon Valley's challenging environment, combines strategic growth initiatives with a disciplined, collaborative approach to sales, marketing, brand, and operations. He has partnered with clients such as Qualcomm, Warner Bros., Lexus, Smithsonian Institute, Sony PlayStation, the Toledo Region, the City of Detroit, the City of Calgary, UPS, Amway, Detroit Auto Show, and RSA.

Maria is a strategic communication and nation branding expert.

With over ten years of professional experience in both public and international sectors, Maria has expertise in global PR and communications, public administration, and nation branding. Maria has managed international projects and communication activities for Vice-Prime-Minister’s Office on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

As a Strategic Communications Advisor to the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Maria provides policy advice on public diplomacy and country promotion. Over the last three years, she has set up an official digital ecosystem of Ukraine Ukraine.ua that has reached unprecedented global audiences of 700 mln, developed the Public Diplomacy Strategy of Ukraine, and launched a range of successful country promotion campaigns.

Currently, as the Head of BRAND UKRAINE, Maria is responsible for Ukraine’s brand development.

Maria holds a Master in International Relations from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University, Ukraine, and Master in Communication for Development from Malmo University, Sweden.

Chris McDonald is Partnership Marketing Campaigns Lead at VisitScotland, a key economic growth agency and Scotland’s national tourism organisation. With a career spanning destination marketing, public relations, communications, and place development across the private, public, and charitable sectors, Chris brings creativity, data, and collaboration together to turn big ideas into memorable, inspiring campaigns that deliver real impact. He believes the best marketing happens when insight meets imagination, and when partnerships give organisations the space to think differently, challenge perceptions, and do something unexpected. His work focuses on creating value for partners while helping Scotland’s visitor economy, destinations, and communities thrive.

As Embratur’s Business Development Manager for Europe, Lilas Nascimento drives strategic growth across 9 priority markets on the continent, specialising in unlocking high-value opportunities and connecting European business networks, investors, and partners to Brazil’s dynamic commercial and tourism ecosystem. Having successfully led Embratur’s UK office for 5 years, she has developed solid market intelligence and established deep ties with key British stakeholders. Today, Lilas bridges her local and continental expertise with the innovative national management team, celebrated for breaking the global growth record for international tourist arrivals in 2025. Operating under the strategic framework of the Plano Brasis (2025-2028), her work focuses on market expansion, multi-regional brand governance, and strategic decentralisation — offering practical benchmarks on how national organisations navigate global competitiveness, balance macro-destination brands with local micro-identities, and transform complex assets, such as the multi-state Amazon brand, into powerful, authentic travel products for discerning travellers.

Dr Natasha Norman is the Director of Institute for Identity (INSTID), which she co-founded in London in 2012. She is a proponent of the people-focused approach to place branding that upholds place’s way of life rather than infrastructure. Trained in national identity (a Lord Dahrendorf Scholar at LSE), Natasha leads INSTID’s qualitative research and speaks at conferences and in the media from the anthropological angle of the place branding field. She has been both a recipient and a judge at City Nation Place awards, and is a longstanding member of The Place Brand Observer Expert panel. Natasha has run projects across 3 continents with the combined population of 20+ million people.

Meira Pappi is Chief Senior Specialist at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, specialising in country brand, international reputation and strategic communications. She has spent close to a decade in the foreign service working on Finland’s international image, with a particular interest in how research and data can inform country brand work.

Her academic background is in sociology, with a Master’s in Cultural Politics and Policy. Before joining the MFA, she worked in music and events, specializing in international marketing, media relations and press programmes.

Her main professional interests include happiness, reputational security and the role of culture in international perception. Alongside her work, she writes the Substack On Brand: Suomi Finland, focusing on country branding, identity and how places are understood internationally.

Aglaë specialises in analysing place brand perceptions and translating research into actionable insights and strategic recommendations. She has contributed to a range of nation, regional and city branding projects, working with organisations including New Zealand Story, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, the Swedish Institute, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Enterprise Estonia, the East Midlands Combined Authority, and Visit Sweden. She has represented Brand Finance at national and international events, strengthening client relationships and supporting business development.

She holds an MSc in International Relations of the Americas from UCL, where she graduated with Merit. Her dissertation explored nation branding, using Costa Rica as a case study.

Fernando Prado is one of the most recognised international experts in reputation and brand management. He is co-creator of cutting-edge reputation measurement tools such as RepTrak^® and RepCore^®. His branding and communication strategies, as well as his research projects on reputation and sustainability have won several national and international awards for their effectiveness and innovation.

Fernando has helped many of the largest companies in Spain and Latin America, as well as relevant multinational companies, in their reputation management. He is also an expert in the reputation of nations and has helped different governments in the management of their country brand.

Before joining Reputation Lab, he headed Reputation Institute (a world leader in corporate reputation measurement and management) in Spain and Latin America for 13 years. During his time at Reputation Institute, Fernando also led the company's global place reputation practice.

Previously, he worked for 10 years at WPP Group in positions related to brand strategy: CEO of Kantya Brand Strategies (Spain), Head of Strategic Planning at JWT Spain, Global BRANDZ Coordinator at Millward Brown Chicago and Strategic Planner at Ogilvy New York.

Fernando Prado holds a BA (Hons.) in International Business Management from ICADE (Madrid) and Middlesex University (London), and an MBA from IESE (Barcelona).

Claire Prentice co-leads the Scottish Government's central Brand, Marketing & Campaigns team, with Brand Scotland and the nation's international reputation at the heart of her remit to drive economic growth. Her team leads the development and cross-sector delivery of Scotland's nation brand strategy, building a distinctive, coherent brand identity and story across trade and investment, tourism, culture, education and talent through a partnership-led, collaborative approach to international marketing.

Brand Scotland won Best Communications Strategy, Place Brand at the City Nation Place Global Awards in 2022 and 2024, and was highly commended in the same category in 2023. Brand Scotland is also part of the City Nation Place Advisory Forum.

Beyond Brand Scotland, Claire is also responsible for the delivery of multiple award-winning behaviour change and public information campaigns across a wide range of Scottish Government priorities, including climate action, economy, health, road safety and equality.

Claire was Chair of the Marketing Society Scotland Advisory Board from 2023 to 2025. Prior to joining the Scottish Government, she spent 5 years as an Account Director at one of Scotland's leading advertising agencies, the Union.

Constanza Rojas Bravo is a Chilean international affairs professional specialising in strategic alliances, international relations, and nation branding. She currently serves as Strategic Alliances Manager for Chile’s Country Brand, Marca Chile, where she leads the foundation's international relations, manages strategic partnerships with public and private actors, and oversees Chile's positioning in key international spaces.

With experience in political and strategic analysis, Constanza has built an extensive career working with international organisations, including IOM and UNHCR, as well as the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, developing expertise in multilateral negotiation, network building, and the design of international strategies. Her work at Marca Chile places her at the intersection of diplomacy, civic identity, and the authentic projection of Chile to the world.

Evan Saunders founded the Tourism and Hospitality division of Azira in 2018. Azira delivers actionable insights on consumer behavior at a global scale, empowering Marketing and Operational Leaders to confidently reach, understand, market to, and measure highly targeted audiences, with over 400 destinations leveraging the company's solutions. Azira has partnered with Zartico since the company's inception. Prior to Azira, Evan founded Attract China, a tourism marketing company focused on Chinese travelers coming to America, and ran it as CEO over a four-year period, servicing 250 clients, speaking at over 30 conferences worldwide, and winning multiple industry-leading awards, including HSMAI’s Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds. An avid traveler and club sandwich enthusiast, Evan documents his adventures on his blog, ClubSandwichReviews.com.

Rose Wangen-Jones is the Managing Director, Marketing, Destinations & Commercial at London & Partners, the official promotional agency for London. Working with the Mayor of London and a network of partners, she promotes London as a leading world city in which to study, invest, work, and visit. Previously, she was the CEO of The Writer, a global brand language consultancy. Before joining The Writer, she was Global Business Director at WPP, responsible for the communications and marketing of one of the group’s largest global accounts. She has spent most of her career in the private sector, leading the development of marketing communications for top national and multi-national brands in the US, Latin America and Europe. Rose holds a BA in Economics and an MBA (Marketing).

Mr. Donovan White was appointed as the Director of Tourism on February 15, 2018. With nearly 30 years of experience as a senior executive in Marketing, Business Development, and Strategy, Mr. White brings a wealth of knowledge to the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB).

He is a solution-oriented leader who has worked both locally and internationally in various industries such as Telecommunications, IT, ICT, Media, and Tourism. Mr. White excels in building successful teams that focus on market share capture, customer experience enhancement, and return on investment in competitive markets.

His track record includes achieving positive business outcomes through strategic relationship-building, team development, and industry transformation. As the primary liaison with JTB's partners, Mr. White is dedicated to leveraging existing relationships to help the Board adapt to global shifts in tourism and expand the destination's reach.

Prior to joining JTB, Mr. White held key leadership positions at Cable & Wireless Business, Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited, Caledonia Outdoor Advertising Limited, Digicel Group Limited, and CVM Communications Group Limited. He is a consummate professional with a strong presence on several public and private sector boards.

He holds an undergraduate degree in Marketing from the University of New Orleans and an Executive MBA from the Telecoms Academy in the United Kingdom.

Richard Wike is Director of Global Attitudes Research at Pew Research Center in Washington, DC. He manages the Center’s international survey research and writes about public opinion around the world on a variety of topics, such as democracy, international cooperation, technology, and attitudes toward the United States and China.

He is an author of numerous Pew Research Center reports and has written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Nikkei Asia, Politico, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Politics and other publications. Wike has been interviewed by a variety of U.S. and non-U.S. news organizations.

Prior to joining Pew Research, Wike was a Senior Associate for international and corporate clients at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Wike got his start in public opinion research with Schapiro Research Group, an Atlanta-based polling firm. He received his PhD in Political Science from Emory University.